NoVo Foundation Launches Fourth Cycle of Move to End Violence

Originally Posted November 14, 2017Share:

New York City—Today, the NoVo Foundation, created in 2006 by Jennifer and Peter Buffett, has named 21 phenomenal leaders to participate in the 4th cohort cycle of Move to End Violence, a 10-year capacity building program designed to support those who are strengthening the movement to end violence against girls and women.

Move to End Violence grew out of the NoVo Foundation’s core commitment to social justice, and its vision of a future in which all girls and all women can live free from violence and discrimination, act as change agents on their own behalf, and lead us to a better world. Knowing that social transformation of this magnitude would require a powerful movement of well-resourced leaders from strong, healthy organizations, NoVo launched Move to End Violence in 2010.

Since then, every two years, Move to End Violence has an open call for innovative leaders who are bringing visionary solutions to ending violence against all girls and women in the United States, including cis, trans and those who are gender nonconforming. Through the encouragement and teaching of many leaders in the movement, Move to End Violence is continually challenging itself to center the wisdom, experience, and leadership of the most affected. This cycle intentionally emphasized the leadership of those from and working within marginalized communities being politically targeted in this time, including Black, immigrant, Indigenous, Muslim and transgender communities – communities that have been historically under-invested in and under-acknowledged for their contributions to the movement. Twenty-one extraordinary leaders, all women of color and Indigenous women, have been selected for their work at the intersection of oppressions and their collective potential for leading us forward toward liberation.

Jennifer and Peter Buffett, co-presidents of the NoVo Foundation, celebrated the announcement of this cohort saying, “This phenomenal group of movement leaders will be given space to work and dream, time to connect more deeply with each other, and resources to tap into their collective wisdom—strengthening the deepest roots of the movements our world needs to create a future free from violence. With room to build relationships, grow and deepen their shared work, transformation is possible, just when our world needs it most.”

The new cohort unites leaders working across the intersections of many of the most powerful movements to end violence against girls and women in all its forms, including domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation, sexual assault, environmental injustice and more. It bridges movement leaders working throughout 13 states across a variety of approaches, including organizing, advocacy, research, and direct service. United by an intersectional commitment to advancing gender and racial equity and addressing all interlocking forms of oppression, this diverse set of leaders is uniquely poised to advance deep-seated, long-lasting change.

“Amid a growing national dialogue around sexual harassment and assault, the urgent need for this work—as well as the possibility it brings for real and lasting change—are perhaps clearer and more prominent right now than they’ve been in decades,” said Pamela Shifman, executive director of NoVo. “We know that seizing this momentum, and truly ending a culture of violence against girls and women, requires long-term, fundamental change, led at every step by those who are most affected by it. That’s exactly what this new cohort is set to do.”

The heart of this 10-year program is building leaders’ capacity for transformative movement-building through a series of five cohort cycles focused on deep dialogue, training, and access to resources. Through convenings, workshops, skills training, coaching, and a community of fellow Movement Makers and allied leaders, participants in the fourth cohort will have a unique and transformational opportunity to powerfully contribute to a movement for social change.

The incoming group of ‘Movement Makers’ embodies the movement we need to build to create bold change:

We know our reality during COVID-19 changes every day in really complicated ways, and so, you can count on our COVID-19 Resources page (http://ow.ly/7XhT50zOntM) to be an ongoing resource to access support and/or support your communities and organizations during this time.